The graph gives information about drinking habits of the US population by age.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
You should write at least 150 words.
Drinking habits by age (US)
SAMPLE 1
The bar graph outlines the drinking habits of Americans based on their age groups. As can be seen, US citizens’ drinking pattern greatly varies based on their age and elder population over 65 years mostly abstain from drinking.
According to the diagram, 60% US citizens between 16 to 24 years old have never been on alcohol while roughly 10% of them used to drink but now are abstainers. Around one-quarter of these young Americans are light-drinkers while remaining 5% drinks heavily. A similar pattern could be observed among the 25-34 years age group but with an increasing ratio of irregular drinkers and almost 8% hard drinker.
It is interesting to note that chronic alcoholics in the US are highest between 35-54 years population and this ratio is lower among the younger and senior citizens. The rate of people who never have had alcohol declines with the increase of age and a reverse trend could be observed for the ex-drinkers whose proportion hikes as people get older.
The highest ratio of hard drinkers falls between 45-54 years age group and the light drinkers is highest among the 25-34 years old Americans. Finally, an overwhelming number of US population, almost 40%, quit drinking when they are over 64 years old.
SAMPLE 2
The bar chart shows information about people’s drinking behavior by age group in the US. Several trends are evident.
The highest proportion of those who never drink (nearly two-thirds) was in the 16 to 24 years group. The proportion tended to decrease with age. Only 40 per cent of people aged 65 to 74 had never drink.
On the other hand, the percentage of those who had quit drinking tended to increase with age. O nly 5 per cent of those in the youngest age group (16 to 24) were ex-drinkers, as opposed to roughly 40 per cent of those aged 65 to 75.
The percentage of those classed as heavy drinkers also showed a distinct pattern. People in middle age (35 to 54) tended to be the heaviest drinkers – approximately 13 per cent of the total. A relatively small proportion of those in the youngest age group, and an even smaller percentage of those in the oldest group (roughly 3 per cent) drink heavily.
Overall, age appears to be a significant factor in patterns of drinking behavior.
(177 words)
